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January 12, 2017

Like many of you, I follow many animal welfare groups and animal shelters on social media. Over the past couple of weeks, I was simply amazed at the number of shelters that sent out notifications of being closed for the holidays. And these shelters weren't just closed on Christmas;, they were closed on the day after Christmas, New Years, the day after New Years and many for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve also.

So, during an 11 day stretch, many shelters were closed at least 4 days, and many up to 6 during that time.

What a missed opportunity.

We talk a lot in sheltering about the need to keep adopter-friendly adoption hours. Being open on weekends, and in the evenings, when most people off work is a great way to attract more adopters. If a shelter is not open when it is convenient for them to come, potential adopters likely won't be adopting from you.

This same philosophy applies to holidays - -when families are off work and together for the holidays. Since they aren't at work, they have time to come adopt a pet. And they do adopt with a lot of regularity on holidays.

And further, animals arrive in open admission shelters every single day - even holidays. So if shelters (and rescues that support those shelters) aren't trying to get animals out safely every single day, they are falling behind. I know at KCPP, we anticipate receiving 27 animals into the shelter every day....so if we aren't getting them back out, we get backed up very quickly. And even if your shelter isn't open admission, the shelters you pull animals from are getting equally backed up if animals aren't getting out of the shelter -- either through their work, or yours.

Plus, shelter staff has to be there anyway to provide care for the animals -- why not let them get to experience the best part of their job while they're there -- which is pets finding homes?

Saving lives requires embracing your community. A shelter cannot become no kill without the support of its community. It is this community that will be your adopters, volunteers and donors. But this also means that successful shelters will need to embrace the community when it is convenient for them to be embraced -- which is when they're not working their jobs --- which often means being available to them on weekends and holidays.

And being available to the public on holidays works incredibly for embracing your community - -and the community will respond positively, and lives will be saved.